American Airlines adds new route-map pin in Delta stronghold

American Airlines is once again adding a small city to its route map.

This time, the Fort Worth-based carrier will commence its first-ever service to Columbus, Mississippi, on May 5, as first seen in Cirium schedules and later confirmed by an airline spokesperson.

American will operate once-daily flights from its megahub at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport (DFW) to Golden Triangle Regional Airport (GTR) using the CRJ-700 regional jet. American Eagle subsidiary SkyWest Airlines will fly the route with this 65-seat plane that accommodates nine first-class passengers, 12 Main Cabin Extra seats and 44 standard economy seats.

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GTR isn't exactly an airport code that most travelers will be familiar with, but the airport's catchment area includes the Golden Triangle region of Mississippi. Specifically, it consists of the Mississippi cities of Columbus, West Point and Starkville — the latter is the home of Mississippi State University.

Regardless of what the area is called, Delta Air Lines has had a monopoly on it for decades, connecting GTR to its Atlanta megahub with up-to-four-times-daily flights, Cirium schedules show. (Delta had a brief stint flying from Columbus to its then-Memphis hub from May 2009 to September 2011, according to Cirium.)

Atlanta is just a 241-mile hop from Columbus, so the airline can offer well-timed connections for those looking to travel beyond the Georgia capital.

For its part, American has been busy in recent months adding small- and medium-size cities to its route map that haven't historically been on its radar. This new service is part of the airline's expansion strategy to capture and funnel as much connecting traffic as possible across some of its busiest hubs, including Charlotte Douglas International Airport (CLT), DFW and Miami International Airport (MIA).

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Some examples of these new destinations include Carlsbad, California; Provo, Utah; and South Caicos, Turks and Caicos.

In a statement confirming the move, an airline spokesperson shared: "American Airlines will start offering nonstop flights from Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport to Golden Triangle Regional Airport starting May 5, operated by SkyWest. Customers will be able to connect on American's expansive network to more than 230 destinations from DFW."

These additions contrast with the pandemic-era cuts at the start of the decade, which saw the Big Three U.S. airlines collectively drop 75 domestic cities from their networks, according to data compiled by aviation consulting firm Ailevon Pacific. American has exited 18 U.S. markets since the pandemic began, the data shows.

Now that the pandemic is in the rearview mirror, the airlines are once again going back into some of these smaller cities.

Of course, the real winners are the locals who will now enjoy increased access to hundreds of destinations — hopefully for cheaper than before when there was just one airline in town.

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